Kidnapping suspect indicted by grand jury

Canadian man accused of abducting toddler in 1987

A federal grand jury has issued a sevencount indictment charging a Canadian man accused of abducting his 2-year-old son in 1987 with filing false statements in order to live in the U.S. under an assumed name.

Allan Mann Jr., 66, also known as “Hailee” or “Hailey” Randolph DeSouza, has not been charged by Canadian investigators in the kidnapping. He faces the latest federal charges after his arrest last month by U.S. marshals at his home in Vernon where he had been living since at least 2004 with his son Jermaine Mann. The two went missing from Toronto in June 1987 after the boy’s mother dropped her son off with Mann for a court-ordered visitation.

Mann is being held without bail at Hartford Correctional Center. A probable cause hearing scheduled for Friday has been canceled because of the indictment. No date for an arraignment has been set. Canadian officials have indicated that they eventually would like to extradite Mann back to Canada to face kidnapping charges.

The indictment alleges that after kidnapping his 21-month-old son, Mann fled to the United States and acquired counterfeit birth certificates for him and his son.

The indictment also alleges that, in June 1990, Mann, using the name Hailee Randolph DeSouza, applied for and received a Social Security number by using the fake birth certificate. In May 2018, Mann, using his alias, applied for a replacement Social Security card.

It is further alleged that Mann has participated in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 subsidized housing program at various times since 2004. Mann and his son have been living in subsidized housing at 157 Terrace Drive in Vernon.

Mann has made multiple false statements on HUD forms he signed in connection with his participation in the Section 8 program, the indictment said. HUD has paid tens of thousands of dollars in housing assistance on Mann’s behalf, according to the indictment.

In addition, the indictment charges that Mann also made multiple false statements on applications to participate in Connecticut’s Medicaid program. Since January 2014, Medicaid has paid tens of thousands of dollars for Mann’s medical expenses, according to the indictment.

The search for Mann picked up steam a few years ago when some U.S. marshals attended a fugitive task force conference sponsored by the Toronto police, who were leading the Canadian kidnapping case. They agreed to work together to find Mann and his son, believing that Mann had entered the U.S. illegally.

U.S. marshals from New York and Connecticut tracked down relatives of Mann living in the United States who told them that Mann had lived in the Bronx in the 1990s with his toddler son but that they hadn’t seen him in a long time because he may have moved to North Carolina or Connecticut and started using the name DeSouza.

Authorities found DeSouza and his son living in Vernon. A forensic specialist from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children compared a photo of Allan Mann to the Connecticut driver’s license for DeSouza and determined they were the same person.

On his rental application for Section 8 housing at the Vernon apartment, DeSouza provided birth certificates showing that he was born in Houston in 1957 and that his son was born there on March 5, 1989, according to the indictment. Both birth certificates were fakes, according to a federal affidavit.

DeSouza and his son had been living at the Vernon address since 2004. DeSouza was arrested after authorities matched a fingerprint from the state police forensics lab with those obtained from Canadian police on file for Allan Mann.

Authorities said Jermaine Mann, now 33, was unaware that he had been abducted and had been told his mother, Lyneth MannLewis, had died shortly after giving birth.